Early Tournament Numbers at WSOP Show Promise for Mixed Games
If you've been a reader of the PokerNews pages or a listener to the PokerNews Podcast, then you know very well we like to push the mixed games. We sure do love our mixed games and one of the best places to get involved in some mixed-game action is at the World Series of Poker, where every year you can play dozens of non-hold'em tournaments across a wide range of buy-in levels.
The 2016 WSOP is a week and a half in the books, and registration numbers are known for the first 15 events. of those first 15, six have been mixed games — defined for the purposes of this article as formats other than no-limit hold'em and pot-limit Omaha. Four of the six have seen field-size increases, one dropped only one entry, and the other essentially maintained its field size and slowed the bleeding from a bigger drop the year before.
The four events that saw increases were the $1,500 Dealer's Choice, up 32 entries, the $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw, up 60 entries, the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E., up six entries, and the $1,500 8-Game, up 111 entries. For comparison purposes, we judging this year's $1,500 8-Game against last year's $1,500 10-Game, although there was the exact same event held in 2014 and this year's field also increased when compared to that one.
| Event | 2014 Entries | 2015 Entries | 2016 Entries |
|---|---|---|---|
| $10,000 Seven-Card Stud | 102 | 91 | 87 |
| $1,500 Dealer’s Choice | 419 | 357 | 389 |
| $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw | 241 | 219 | 279 |
| $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. | 743 | 772 | 778 |
| $1,500 Razz | 352 | 462 | 462 |
| $1,500 8-Game | 485 | 380 | 491 |
It's also great to see that only one of the six mixed-game events from the early part of the schedule, the $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Championship, suffered a decline in back-to-back years. In regards to the $1,500 Dealer's Choice, $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw, and $1,500 8-Game events, it's very positive to see them buck the negative trend from 2014 to 2015.
Looking at the total number of entries across these six events, 2014 had 2,342 total entries. That total dipped to 2,281 in 2015, but then jumped back up to 2,485 in 2016 — not only improving upon last year's number, but also coming in higher than in 2014.
There are over a dozen mixed-game events left on the schedule and we would expect to see similar increases in the field sizes of those events, too, so if there was ever a time to dive into some of these different variants of poker, it's now.
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